


Between the Ideal and the Possible

by weasleytook



Category: Revenge (TV)
Genre: Drama, Friendship, Gen, Mystery, Reluctant Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-24
Updated: 2011-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-28 00:45:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/301891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weasleytook/pseuds/weasleytook
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bitter about having his help rejected by Emily time and time again, Nolan decides to do a little scheming on his own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Between the Ideal and the Possible

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cala](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cala/gifts).



_December, 2012_

He might not have seen her if it wasn’t for the clump of snow that comes loose from a tree branch and lands on him. He shakes it off, pulls up the collar on his coat and there she is. She’s walking right down the street in front of his offices in New York and he wonders if it’s a coincidence, or if maybe, just maybe, she’s there for a reason.

Probably a coincidence, is what he goes with.

In the span of forty-five seconds, he goes through all possible scenarios in his head. He could ignore her and go back inside, he could wait to see if she spots him, or he could walk up to her.

She smiles, and it’s clear she’s seen him. It’s not some big bright happy smile. It’s polite and more of an acknowledgement of his presence than anything else.

Emily walks directly to him, and Nolan does his best to act like he’s not surprised.

“You don’t look like you belong here,” she says.

He laughs because he gets that at most places he goes. “I could say the same for you.”

She’s so hard to read, and it’s impossible for him to figure out what she’s up to this time. She says nothing in reply, so Nolan speaks again, “What do you want, Ems?”

“I just want to talk.”

Nolan laughs again because even that sentence can mean so many things when she's the one saying it. Nothing is ever quite so simple with Emily Thorne.

*

 _Late July, 2011_

He walked away. And she let him.

And he thought that was that. Maybe he could just go back to the way things were before she showed up in his life again. That's what he's wishing for when he is back in his house on the hill that same night. He decided he would wake up the next morning and forget about Emily and Amanda and Tyler and Jack and the Graysons and the whole damn mess.

So he slept. He slept better than he had in months.

But when he woke up, he knew that it couldn't be over just like that. He had made a promise to David to look out for his daughter and maybe Emily didn't think she needed any help or anyone to look out for but she was playing a dangerous game.

Nolan's first instinct is to turn on his computer. That had been the one thing he could rely on his entire life. Even when people let him down, technology is always there.

He had to do something. It wasn't that he wanted to stop Emily from wreaking havoc on these people. They certainly had it coming. But the longer this went on, the more likely she would be lost forever.

That's not what David would have wanted.

But he tried, and he was rejected, and even invoking the memory of her dead father did nothing to change things. So he sits and stares at all the files where he keeps track of what Emily has been doing and the history of the Clarkes and the Graysons as he knows it.

Maybe. Just maybe he can end the game once and for all. Take down the Graysons faster than Emily plans to. It's vengeance for what they did to David, but it also takes away what Emily has been working towards. It's Nolan's own brand of vengeance for being tossed out of her life so coldly.

But. How?

Nolan may know a lot, but it's Emily who has all the evidence. And now Tyler knows too.

But if he puts all the evidence out there into the world, then Emily can finally move on - and Tyler will be gone from their lives and –

He grins. And just like that he knows.

*

 _Late August, 2011_

Just because Emily isn't speaking to him and he's not speaking to her doesn't mean he's not watching her closely. He watches as she bides her time, taking down a couple people on her list but worming her way into the Grayson family with a smile the whole time.

Before their falling out, he already had a program installed in her computer that kept track of what she was doing and had everything uploaded to his server. Without her knowledge, of course.

He’d feel a little bit guilty if it were anyone but Emily. Hell, part of him thinks she’d be at least a little impressed.

So he waits. And watches. And he knows Emily has no plans of exposing the Graysons anytime soon, and as long as Tyler has a cushy job at Grayson Global, he won’t say a word either.

It’s actually a little creepy how much he knows. Like when exactly Daniel is going to pop the question and where he’s going to do it and that Emily’s going to be gone from her house for at least six hours and that is his window of opportunity right there.

Emily is smart, scary smart, and she seems to be able to anticipate what everyone involved her game is going to do. But apparently she didn’t anticipate that when Nolan bought her house for her, he would make sure to have copies of the keys made for himself. She also didn’t anticipate that he would know exactly where her secrets were hidden.

So he turns his window of opportunity into a giant door and copies everything from the box her father gave her and from the files on her hard drive while she’s out getting engaged to the son of her mortal enemy.

All in all, he feels pretty good about it.

Now he just has to pick his moment and go for it.

*

 _Labor Day Weekend - September, 2011_

He gets invited to Emily and Daniel's engagement party in an unorthodox way. There's no engraved invitation delivered to his door. Not even an e-vite sent to his inbox. It's more like he runs into Daniel in town and Daniel invites him.

He's not sure why, they aren't friends and never have been. Maybe he's courting Nolan's business after that mess with Tyler. Maybe there's some other reason that Nolan hasn't figured out yet. But it seems like the perfect opportunity to plan a surprise for the elder Graysons and their soon-to-be daughter-in-law.

It's not like Nolan needed an invite. He was at least 98% certain he was going to crash the party anyway.

So he takes out a page out of Emily Thorne's big book of tricks and creates his own little presentation to air after the speeches and toasts and the gag-inducing slideshow of Daniel and Emily looking oh-so-adorable.

He knows the look he has on his face throughout the evening is probably a bit suspicious but he can't seem to wipe it off. For the first time that evening, Emily is in his vicinity so he gives her a sarcastic little wave. At least he thinks it's as close to sarcasm as a wave can be.

"Nice night for it?"

"Nice night for what, Nolan?

"Celebrating," he returns. But he means so much more for that. Nice night for a takedown, nice night to end this game so we can both move on, nice night for a lot of things.

"You shouldn't be here," she says with a shake of her head.

Nolan can barely repress a grin and replies, "That makes two of us."

Emily gets distracted by someone wanting to see her ring so she gives him one last parting glance and deep down he hopes that his comment stings her as much as he intended it to. She doesn't belong here. Not with Daniel, not in the Hamptons, not anywhere near the Graysons. And he hopes he's about to change all that.

Or that's what he thought. Minutes later and everything explodes into chaos. Victoria is screaming and running to the beach and a barely clothed Charlotte Grayson has collapsed in sobs. News spreads like wildfire amongst the party guests that Daniel has been murdered.

He knows Emily better than anyone, probably, and though she is ruthless, he knows that this is not how she hoped things would turn out. Daniel was one of the only innocents in all of this mess.

Nolan feels bad for a moment, but he's not dumb enough to leave evidence laying around so he makes sure to grab the DVD with his presentation on it before the police start hauling everyone off for questioning.

And by everyone, he means _everyone_. Even the guests who aren't suspects have to be questioned at the scene to see if they saw or heard anything. The major players end up at the station and somehow Nolan ends up among them.

He gets a brief glimpse of Emily as they’re taking her to an interrogation room, and she looks more upset than he’s seen her since the day he handed her the double infinity box. This was definitely not in her plan.

Nolan’s interrogation is pretty brief as he didn’t see anything or hear anything and he doesn’t really have any motive to arrange for someone else to kill Daniel Grayson.

When they let him go, he sees the last person he expected to see being taken into another room for questioning - Jack Porter.

He doesn’t believe it. Not in a million years. Jack Porter is hardly perfect, but Nolan knows he wouldn’t have hurt Daniel. Never.

He lies in bed that night for hours going over every possible suspect and scenario. It can’t be Jack. It just can’t. It’s not Emily. Maybe the other Amanda Clarke or Tyler or maybe some other enemy of the Graysons of which there are too many to count.

By the time he gets to sleep, the sun is almost up. It doesn’t last long because Big Ed is trying to rouse him about forty minutes later.

“Emily Thorne is at your front door.”

Nolan rubs his eyes and sits straight up in bed. “Pardon?”

“I told her you were in bed, but she said she wouldn’t leave until she spoke to you. She’s very –“

“Persistent, I know. Tell her I’ll be down in a minute.”

Nolan grabs some jeans and a t-shirt out of his closet and quickly heads downstairs where Emily is standing in his entry way looking like she hasn’t slept in days.

“Hey…”

She tries to force a smile but it doesn’t quite come off. “You look like you did when I first met you.”

Nolan smiles slightly and looks down at his clothes. Sometimes his MIT-geek-wear gets dusted off, especially when he’s in a hurry.

“You okay?”

“No,” she says and her voice cracks a little on just that one syllable. She regains her composure and continues, “You know... they think Jack did it.”

“Not possible. I’d bet every single dollar both of us have that Jack Porter is innocent.”

“Me too, but – he was there on the beach and – I don’t know. I’m afraid the police are going to just think he’s some poor townie who got jealous because he was in love with me and won’t care about the evidence.”

Nolan ponders a few things and after a moment starts nodding. “I won’t let it happen. I’ll pay for a lawyer, a private investigator, do whatever it takes. They know Jack and I are – or were – friends. Sort of. No one will be suspicious of that.”

She tucks a piece of hair behind her ear and it’s clear she’s fighting a storm of emotions, feelings about Daniel, Jack, the whole mess, everything threatening to burst out suddenly. But in true Emily style she holds it all at bay as she responds, “Thank you. I know you wanted me to run away with Jack, but you know that’s something I can never have. I never will. Jack will eventually find out who I really am and he would never forgive that – but – I just need to make sure he's going to be okay.”

“Who do you think did it?”

“I don’t know. You know, Daniel found out.”

Nolan’s eyebrows went up at this revelation and he asked, “Everything?”

“Not everything. But he knew that Tyler was blackmailing Conrad and that it had something to do with Flight 197. But I don’t think he knew about me.”

He’s suddenly a little resentful that she’s asking him for favors after basically dumping him just last month. “Listen, Ems, I’m going to help you. But it’s for Jack. Not for you.”

She breathes in and nods in understanding. “I figured. But can I ask you one thing?”

“Sure.”

“What did you want from me? Back before all this happened? Why did you try so hard to help me?”

“Because I promised your dad that I’d be there for you. Everything I did was to help you.”

“Including Tyler.”

“Especially that.” Okay, that was at least a little bit for fun, he admits to only himself, but it was mostly to keep Tyler away from Emily and Daniel.

She looks skeptical but doesn’t say it. “And that’s it? That’s all you wanted?”

Nolan sighs and looks at the floor for a moment before he looks back up at her and says, “I just wanted you to trust me. That’s all.”

Emily nods and heads for the door. She’s halfway out of it when she turns to him and he can just barely see the cracks in her façade for a moment. “You know I just don’t have the luxury of trusting anyone, but if I did, it would have been you.”

“I know.”

Nolan smiles at her before she exits, and that’s how they end up partners again. She may not be able to put all her in trust in him, but she trusts him enough to help save Jack. That’s enough for now.

*

He hires the best criminal lawyer he can find and a private investigator, and he pours money into the Stowaway so it won’t close while Jack is in jail.

But it all ends because of Tyler. Tyler may be crazy but he’s not dumb enough to confess inside Nolan’s house where Nolan has secret cameras hidden in all kinds of places.

Instead it happens at the poolhouse. Nolan has been doing some sleuthing of his own when Tyler shows up and makes the stupid mistake of revealing everything he knows and everything he’s done, including killing Daniel, to Nolan.

“He was going to make sure his parents were punished for what they did, and I was going to lose everything and –“

“Ty, it’s like you’ve never watched a movie in your entire messed-up privileged life. You never reveal your dastardly plans to someone, even if you are holding a gun on them.”

Tyler is nervous, pacing, sweating, shaking the gun around like a mad man and somehow Nolan has never felt calmer in his life.

It doesn’t hurt that Nolan invented the technology to record conversations on your smartphone and have them sent to anyone in your contact list. When Tyler is busy muttering to himself about his plans and how he’s going to get rid of Nolan and so on, Nolan is busy sending out Tyler’s confession to Emily, Jack, Jack’s lawyer and the local police.

Oh, and Big Ed. Most importantly, Big Ed.

Nolan thinks it’s the perfect time for some snark, so he tells Tyler, “Before you get rid of me, I just want to give you one piece of advice.”

Tyler pauses his pacing and stares him down so Nolan continues, “Okay, two pieces of advice. One, hire a bodyguard. And, two, always take him with you.”

Tyler still looks confused when Big Ed busts the door open and knocks the gun out of his hand before they land on the floor together with Ed pinning him down.

“Oh, Big Ed, that could not have been timed better. Remind me to give you a raise. And a really fat Christmas bonus.”

Ed gives him a thumbs up in response as Nolan dials the police.

Just before the police dispatcher answer, Nolan grins and says out loud, "Now that's how you do a takedown."

*

So a murderer gets put away, and an innocent man goes free. And all in all, it’s a pretty stellar season in the Hamptons for Nolan.

Conrad and Victoria get exposed for who they are not too long after that. Nolan lets Emily take this victory all on her own.

So he goes back to New York for the winter months and Emily vanishes.

And that’s that. He thinks about her, wonders if she got the satisfaction she wanted and felt she deserved, but he doesn’t look for her anymore.

The truth is, when he sees a girl on the street that might be her, it makes him stop and look twice, but that’s it. He hopes she’s happy, because that’s what David wanted for her. It’s what Nolan wants too.

*

 _December, 2012_

“You want to talk?”

“Yeah. I’m in town on business.”

“Business?”

She nods and smiles at him, and it catches him off guard because it’s such an easy and warm smile, not the forced smiles she used to give. “I thought I would put some of my, well, ‘special’ skills to good use.”

Nolan is now decidedly curious but this is Emily so he’s also a bit wary, “And you need my help?”

“No, I _want_ your help. So what do you say to dinner? For old time’s sake…”

He laughs because he can’t remember a time when they had ever had dinner together before. “Okay, dinner is fine.”

“Then I’ll meet you back here around seven?”

“Sure.”

She puts her hand on his arm and gives it a squeeze along with another smile. The Emily he knows is still there but there’s something changed about her, like the weight of the world has been lifted.

Before she lets go of him, he asks one more question, “What kind of business?”

“You once told me I was so good at taking people down I should go pro. So, I did.”

Emily grins at him and then turns and before he can even process what she’s said, she’s already around the corner and out of sight.

He had thought Emily Thorne was done surprising him, but this time, he’s happy to be wrong.

**Author's Note:**

> To Cala, I was SO excited when I saw your prompts because it was just like it was made for me. I hope you enjoy this fic at least half as much as I enjoyed writing it for you. You have *wonderful* taste in characters and shows. <3 Happy Yuletide!
> 
> Thank you to [redacted until after reveals] for the quick and awesome beta!


End file.
